Yesterday we went back to Cossall Estate to help Jackie. Along with newbie Dennis (welcome!), David, Daryl and Isaac met me at Old Spike, and we ran the 2kms there together. Richard was already at the community hall when we arrived, and Benjamin joined us soon after.

Jackie had two tasks for us, one which was to move things from one storage cupboard into another bigger one. And secondly, we continued scrubbing chairs which were stained from a flood. We managed to get both jobs done, before running back to Old Spike. Great job team! 🙌

7 GGers ran to Cossall community centre on wednesday. Helping Jaki by giving some flood damaged chairs a bubble bath.

Followed by some essential post run hydration at Copeland Park

On Wednesday, we headed to Cossall Estate to help out. Alan was there to meet up and he quickly put us to work.

We split up to do a spread of tasks, ranging from cleaning graffiti off a notice board, some weeding, and moving a broken bench. In the second half of the session, we all grouped back together to clean some stains off the chairs in the community hall. We smashed out target and did over 20 chairs, well done team! 🙌

Our group run started a bit early this week with a few of us meeting at the Nags Head to watch the woman’s euro game allowing us to hydrate pre run. Ten of us gathered at the Old Spike and did a short run to meet Karthik and Koshy at Cossall Estate. Our first task was litter picking the nature reserve. You never know what treasures you may find there! After this we weeded the beds in the estate and then jogged back to Peckham. The majority of the group were keen for more football so headed straight to the pub after!

Sam's penultimate group run as AA led had finally arrived! It was also going to be our last time going to Cossall Estate for this year. As Old Spike Peckham opened, we welcomed in Cecilia, Daryl, Rosemary, David, Maria, Nelly, Rosalind and Mansur. Sam knew that Benjamin would meet them there.

He went through his usual speech and on the day of "Cheese burger Day", Sam asked an ice-breaker question to identify: "Where the best cheeseburger is?", for those veggie, vegan or didn't understand the question: "What's your go-to fast food chain?"

We had a mixture of GoodGym and Women's Aid as favourite charities, I can't read what people are reading...apologies and lastly, we had from Neck Oil to Guinness as people's favourite beers...yes, Guinness is a stout...

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One of our shortest runs

After a quick warm-up in the the Green, Sam led the group out through to Peckham Rye park to cover half of the park before heading into Nunhead Green and down to Cossall Estate. It's easily our shortest run at GoodGym Southwark minus Salvation Army Nunhead. Daryl backmarked the run and we met Benjamin at the task as he had cycled there from home.

Alan and Jaki were waiting for us inside Cossall Hall as well as Oscar the dog. They had prepared all the tools and were ready to split the team into two. The first team were led by Alan with litter pickers and black bags to do a litter picking session in Kirkwood Nature Reserve. This consisted of Benjamin, Daryl, David, Emma and Rosemary. Whilst Maria, Mansur, Nelly and Rosalind stayed to clear and clean the courtyard of Cossall Hall from weeds and leaves.

As 20:00 arrived, the litter pickers were back from their haul and the gardeners had finished tidying up the space. Just enough time to pack the tools away and take a group photo on the stage. I can't believe that is it for the year and we will be back in the Spring of 2025!

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night! Alan and Jaki are always appreciative of all the work we do and the help we can give. Thank you to Daryl for backmarking the runs.

Has it been half a year already?! With Summer solstice behind us, it was time that we came together to celebrate the summer in true GoodGym Southwark fashion - summer social at a rooftop bar in Peckham!

However, before we could get to that stage, we needed to put in a good shift. The night started with everyone feeling the heat from the hottest day of the year as they arrived at Old Spike Peckham. Sam opened up coffee shop for Maria, Sarah who came visiting from GG Greenwich, Emma, Nelly, Paulin, James, Nathan, Daryl and Louise. Sam knew a few GoodGymers would meet him at Cossall Estate, so even before it turned 18:45, he got going with his usual speech and his ice-breaker question. Tonight's ice-breaker was a little bit depressing as it was Day Against Drug Abuse, so he asked: "If I mention the word "Druggie" or "drug abuse", who do you think of or what film, book, documentary?"

Books like A Little Life, Films like Trainspotting and people like Pete Davidson and Matt Healy were mentioned.

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Breaking soil ground

We headed out to the Green to warm-up, but since it was already warm in terms of temperature...it didn't take much to get an elevated heart rate. After the warm-up, Sam led from the front and Maria from the back as we run half of Peckham Rye Park before venturing towards Nunhead to drop off Paulin, James, Nathan and Emma who kindly volunteered to help with a last minute second task that wasn't completed on Sunday and so the task owner, Serife, asked for a small group to complete the job on Wednesday, which they did.

The rest of us ran another kilometre and a bit to reach Cossall Hall to meet the other GoodGymers: Folarin, Jess and Sander as well as Alan, Jaki and Oscar (the dog).

Alan needed four people to come with him to litter pick Kirkwood Nature Reserve, so Maria, Sarah, Nelly and Louise went along with litter pickers and bin bags to pick up unwanted and discarded items throughout the Reserve and in front of both entrances. Whilst Daryl Folarin, Jess, Sander and Sam followed Jaki with a trolley and wheelbarrow of tools to tackle the growing beds which had loads of weeds, grass and nettles growing in it. However, the task proved more difficult with hard soil. Still the group managed to fill 10 bags of garden waste...

Time flashes by during our GoodGym sessions and after 40 minutes, we had to put away tools and throw away the bin bags. A quick photo call inside the courtyard of Cossall Hall before we said our goodbyes and had to rush off back to Old Spike Peckham as we had the other group waiting for us as well as a social to enjoy!

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night. Two tasks done within 40-45 minutes and a delightful time spent at Frank's Bold Tendencies for our summer social and to celebrate our achievements so far. Great to see faces that I haven't seen in awhile and hope to see you soon. Kudos to all and if I don't see you next week, see you soon!